Monthly Archives: May 2022

Finding the Perfect Event Speaker

We understand the challenge of creating an event that resonates with your audience. Beyond planning your event and staying organized, the event speaker is essential to creating a lasting impression of your message on attendees. At every event, you want your audience to react with speaker reviews such as:

“She was fun and exciting, energetic, enthusiastic and has great energy and very passionate.”
“Well prepared presentation, good and proper amount of analogies/real-life experiences. Strong voice inflections, kept me interested.”

 “Samantha knocked it out of the park. Our attendees LOVED her. She is truly a gifted speaker. You can be sure we will be reaching out to her very soon regarding additional speaking opportunities.”

 “We evaluate over 90-100 of the best speakers there are each year. Your content was exceptional and your slides were in the top 3% of any presentation I’ve seen in the last two years. Relevant, clean, crisp, easy to read, and professional. So impressed.”

We are proud to have Samantha Toth, ABOC as our Marketing Rockstar and primary speaker. We don’t hide it! It takes a lot of passion and inspiration to be a good speaker, and Samantha has it! 

Researching & Finding An Event Speaker

Before you research, answer these questions.

A lot of event planning has to happen before finding or researching a speaker. Before starting your speaker research and outreach, we recommend asking yourself these questions. 

  • When is the event? You should begin to find a speaker about 6-12 months before the event.
  • Who is my audience? 
  • How big is this event? 
  • Is the event in-person, online or is it a hybrid format? 
  • Do you want a leadership speaker, a motivational speaker, a celebrity, or an industry expert? 
  • What personality are you looking for?
  • Is there a specific tone are you trying to set for your audience? 
  • What message are you trying to convey?
  • What’s your speaker budget? You’ll need to consider not only their honorarium but be able to cover their travel, too.

Then research and reach out!

Armed with an event outline, you are now ready to start your speaker research! We know from experience this is not an easy task. If you need help, our team can find and contract a speaker perfect for your brand and message. Ready to tackle research on your own? Here are our recommendations of where to look and what to do once you find an interested speaker. 

  • Review speakers’ LinkedIn profiles & join speaker groups
  • Check online forums
  • Look into other industry events & who they’re hiring
  • Have a speaker in mind? Check out their website
  • Watch speaker videos
  • Take word-of-mouth recommendations from partners, vendors and clients
  • Scout them in-person, when possible
  • Interview them

Our pro tip: After doing some homework, keep a speaker library for future use, including the speaker’s contact information, website, video samples, survey results, and testimonials. 

I found my speaker, now what?

Once you’ve found your perfect speaker, thoroughly review and sign a contract. Next, dive into all event details with your speaker so they know what to expect and what your expectations are. Having a conversation about the message, audience, and the event environment is helpful to make sure your speaker is as successful as they can be. 

Collect Feedback

Finally, don’t forget to collect attendee feedback following your event to determine how successful your speaker was! 

 

Researching speakers can be challenging and overwhelming, but we can take that responsibility off your shoulders. Reach out now and we’ll put you in touch with a 5-star rated speaker to knock it out of the park and engage your event audience.

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What event services are you interested in?(Required)

Jess Hunt
Jess is the Events Manager at Innereactive. After gaining 11 years of event experience in the food industry, she’s ready to take on the optical world. She’s very passionate about helping people, simplifying processes, and creating positive experiences.

 

Simplify Your Hiring Process

Some companies dread having to hire a new employee. The process can be time-consuming, expensive, and at times frustrating. And after interviewing, you may not even end up with the right candidate. Simplifying your hiring process so you are ready to hire the moment you need someone can help your business on multiple fronts. When you simplify your hiring process, you can fill the position faster, spend less time and money, and ensure the candidate is the right fit for your company.

Job Postings

Start by creating a job description template with a starting salary range that all of your job postings can follow. Next, get ahead of the game and outline your current company job descriptions now! This allows you to post an opening as soon as it’s needed. If you are handed a two-week notice, this will reduce the days your team feels the pinch of being short-staffed. You can also openly share job descriptions and salary ranges internally so employees looking to grow within your company will know the expectations and skills they need to obtain a specific position within the company. 

Ask For a Cover Letter

Unless your candidate will fill a role that requires them to showcase their writing, branding, or selling skills, ask yourself if you want to require a cover letter. If the answer is yes, determine what you hope to learn about a candidate from their cover letter. If you are going to invest the time in reading a cover letter, offering candidates some direction on what to include might be beneficial if you are looking to learn something specific. 

Interviews

Simplify Your Hiring - Ten Min InterviewThe 10-Minute Interview 

What better way to simplify your hiring process than with a 10-minute interview! Knowing that you only have 10-minutes with a candidate allows you to pinpoint the most important questions to ask and more quickly determine if they are the right fit. Outline five to ten interview questions in the first round of interviews and stick to only these questions. It is tempting to go on a tangent if a candidate answers a question with an interesting response, but don’t! We recommend noting the follow-up question and asking it during a second interview if they are a possible candidate.

The Second Interview 

Fewer candidates should be brought in for a second interview. The exact number may differ based on the number of original candidates and the position being filled. These interviews should also be longer and potentially less scripted. It is still important to have a list of questions to ask each candidate but pursue follow-up questions during the interview to fully understand the candidate. Generally speaking, we recommend no interview process should extend past two interviews.

Job Offer

Send a personal response to every candidate you interview. It can be a templated response but include a personal introduction. This shows that you valued your candidate’s time. If possible, respond to every person who applied for the job even if they didn’t receive an interview. Responding to all applicants shows them that your company makes decisions within appropriate time frames and that they aren’t going to hear from you months later asking for a job interview for a job they no longer remember applying for. 

Send a personalized email with the job offer and a copy of your employee handbook attached for the candidate you wish to hire. 

When you simplify your hiring process and build structure, you ensure candidates have the best possible experience.

Need help? We can help you streamline your hiring process by creating structure and proper documentation, including job descriptions, interview questions, job offer templates, and onboarding checklists.

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Heather Morrison
Heather is the VP of Operations at Innereactive and we are lucky to have her. She has over five years of experience running an HR department and enjoys helping businesses like yours find solutions to their HR needs.